GARDEN IN WINTER, 1997-99
LUCIAN FREUD
etching on Somerset white paper
76.5 x 59.5 cm
edition: 19/46
signed and numbered below image
printed by Marc Balakjian at Studio Prints, London
published by Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
Private collection, Sydney
Lucian Freud Etchings, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, 11 November – 23 December 2000 (another example)
Lucian Freud'Etchings 1946–2004', touring exhibition, 2004: Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Abbot Hall, Kendal; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; 2005: Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; Marlborough Fine Art, London (another example)
Art of the Garden, Tate Britain, London, 3 June – 30 August 2004 (another example)
Lucian Freud, The Painter's Etchings, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 16 December 2007 – 10 March 2008, cat. 76 (another example)
Flora and Fauna: 400 Years of Artists Inspired by Nature, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 9 May – 9 September 2012 (another example)
Hartley, C., Lucian Freud: Recent Etchings, Marlborough Graphics, London, 1999, cat. 58, continuation of catalogue raissoné published 1995, (illus., another example)
Marks, M. (ed.), Lucian Freud Etchings, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, 2000, cat. 35 (illus., another example)
Feaver, W., Lucian Freud, Tate Publishing, London, 2002, cat. 298
Hartley, C., Lucian Freud Etchings 1946–2004, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and Marlborough Graphics, London, 2004, fig. 17 (illus., another example)
Smee, S., Lucian Freud, 1996–2005, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2005, cat. 32
Figura, S., Lucian Freud, The Painter's Etchings, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2008, pp. 32, 126–127, 137 (illus. pl. 97, another example)
Considered one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Lucian Freud's powerful and mesmerising work continues to capture the attention and imagination of a global audience. Known primarily as a figurative painter, his 'naked portraits' in thick impasto are typically confronting in their rawness but captivating for their psychological penetration.
The grandson of Sigmund Freud, the psychological investigation inherent in Lucian Freud's work may be a family trait. Even his earliest works show an interest in surrealism and it is this sense of concentration, an altered state or heightened reality, which is central to his entire body of work. He has said, 'The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.'
Freud has often explained that his work is purely autobiographical.'It is about myself and my surroundings. It is an attempt at a record. I work from people that interest me, and that I care about and think about, in rooms that I live in and know.'1 This care and depth of concentration is legendary with many of those who have sat for the artist describing a process of piercing scrutiny lasting for months, a process which can be exhausting for both subject and artist. So it is following a period of sustained contact with his portrait subjects that a few key works such as Garden in Winter, a depiction of the artist's garden at Holland Park in London, emerge, in a way as a retreat into a solitary contemplation. 'The subject matter has always been dictated by the way my life has gone. I noticed when I was under particular strain, I didn't feel so like staring at bodies all day. I preferred working in complete isolation.'2
Unlike his etchings of portraits or naked portraits which are focused views of the sitter, mostly surrounded by clear space, in Garden in Winter Freud embarked on a remarkably ambitious and complex work in which the large scale plate is worked completely from edge to edge, with each mark carrying an equal value and no focal point on which to rest. So great was the aim and so demanding of attention to detail, the artist drew the image on the copper plate over two winters, without disturbing that area of his garden for the duration of the process. Regularly consulting his master printer Marc Balakjian throughout the period to ensure technical aspects of the printing process could faithfully transfer his vision from copper to paper, Garden in Winter is an example of virtuosity in etching.
1. The artist quoted in Smee, S., Freud, Taschen, Cologne, 2011, p. 7
2. Figura, S., Lucian Freud, The Painter's Etchings, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2008, p. 32